New Zealand Education Program Impacts Students' Lives Outside the Classroom and Teaches Them to Find Solutions

The peer-reviewed study's author Dr. Sally Birdsall wrote, “Their learning was valuable and relevant because it related to their lives outside of school, rather than learning that was only required for assessment purposes.” Middle school students in a 15-week environmental education program demonstrated an impressive command of new knowledge, the ability to analyze a situation and come up with creative solutions, as well possess the desire to take action themselves. Teachers and students were interviewed revealed that the real-world, action-oriented approach made it sink in with students that each of them plays an important role in the community that they live in and prepared them to use systems thinking.